How to Expedite the Procurement Process

If you work in procurement (especially public sector), you’ve likely heard “The procurement process takes too long.” or, “We don’t have the time, we need this now.”. This mostly comes from poor planning and poor management. Fret not, friends, for there are ways to expedite the process. This post will lay out three of my favorite methods.

First: Simplified RFP

This method takes the traditional request for proposal (RFP) process and shortens it. Traditionally a formal RFP takes almost 2-3 months to complete. The simplified RFP reduces the time down to a month. How? It’s simple (I crack myself up). Let’s say you have a janitorial service contract that is expiring and you want to replace the vendor and you decide you don’t want just the lowest bidder. Thus, you decide to do a simplified RFP. All you need to do is update the old scope of work and add technical criteria you will use to evaluate proposals. This is a relatively simple service/purchase, thus, you should not need to post this solicitation for more than two weeks. As long as you’re not buried in a bunch of proposals, the evaluation should only take a week to review proposals and select a winner. Just keep in mind the simplified RFP should not be used for complex purchases, and should only be reserved for simple purchases where technical factors are the evaluation criteria. The second method operates similarly but is much different.

2: Qualified Vendor List (QVL)

The work to setup a qualified vendor list is a lot up front but saves a lot of time on the back end. To set this up you need to write a scope of work that is not too generic but not too specific. The scope should include just enough details as to what the main requirements are and the evaluation criteria details the bare minimum skills/knowledge required. And the vendors should be required to submit examples of work. As the proposals are received, they are reviewed for responsibleness and responsiveness, i.e. did they demonstrate the ability to fulfill the minimum requirements and did they submit required documents? The beauty of this method is you can leave the original solicitation open infinitum to keep building the list, or place a cap on the number of vendor allowed on the list. Once you have multiple vendors on the list you can start issuing task orders. Or, you can walk and chew gum at the same time and post them together with a statement saying vendors must be on the QVL to be permitted to submit responses to the task-order. The task order is where you’ll be more specific with scopes of work, And for the evaluation criteria, the task order can be awarded to low bidder or award can be based on technical criteria, just make sure you specify what the criteria is in the task order. Depending on the scope of the task order, the process can be as quick as a week to receive responses and award the task order, or it can take up to a month. The third method may sound similar to the QVL but is set up slightly different. And in-fact, they can even be combined.

3: Categorized Service Contracts

This type of contract takes some effort to set up as well but saves a ton of time. This would be really beneficial to your maintenance and facilities (M&F) department. Let’s say M&F need an electrician, a landscaper, and plumbing. The scope of work would detail the work needed in these three categories. While you could set up a QVL for each category, let’s just assume you’re only interested in one vendor for each category. Public sector is relegated (usually because of a statute) to selecting the lowest responsible and responsive bidder. Private sector, usually won’t have that requirement. This method allows you to knock out multiple needs at once and should take no more than a month to receive responses and award the contract.

Conclusion:

Finally, each of these methods have a time and place and have a lot of time saving benefits. But, they should only be used when time is really not a luxury that you have and these are not without their flaws. Rushed work is incomplete work. You should always plan ahead and anticipate needed purchases.